Outreach secrets: How to increase your reply rates (+ example)

You’re sending tons of emails every month but your reply rates are still in the prospecting basement.

If your cold email reply rate is below 10%, you’re missing out.

To increase replies from your prospects and open new business opportunities, your email needs to stand out and provide value.

Tips to improve your cold email reply rates

1. Verify your cold email list

First and foremost, are you reaching the right people?

There can be two main issues in your email list that are restraining your reply rates.

1. You’re reaching the wrong people
2. You’re sending emails to invalid addresses

It’s important that you segment your email lists so that you send each lead the right message. Not all emails in your campaign will apply to every lead.

Additionally, conduct a bit of research on every lead to make sure that you’re hitting the right pain points and reaching out to them at the perfect time.

Make sure you use reliable sources to extract your leads’ contact information.

Reaching out to the wrong people can have terrible impacts on your business. For one, they aren’t even seeing your carefully thought-out messages, so obviously they’ll never be able to answer.

But what’s worse, you’re hurting your deliverability, so the messages that could reach your leads are landing straight in their spam folder!

With this Email Finder and Verifier you’ll ensure that you’re getting the right contact information.

2. Check your subject line

This may sound basic, but it’s the first impression your leads are getting of you. You only get one chance at a first impression.

33% recipients open an email based on the subject line

If your subject line isn’t written correctly, chances are your leads are just hitting that delete button without thinking twice about is.

Learn how to write a subject line that improves rely rates now!

3. Check the tone and body of your email

While your subject line will inspire your leads to open your email, your content will push them to take action.

Start with a friendly email greeting, that will immediately catch their eye.

If this is your first email, you want to focus on them. Avoid talking too much about yourself, what you do, and who you are. You could risk coming across as too sales-y or too pushy. Inevitably, this will push your leads away.

You want to take a more familiar tone and make the email about them. Start with a genuine compliment on something they’ve achieved, then move on to a pain point they might be experiencing, and finally, through in your solution to the problem.

Helpful resource: How to write a cold email that gets replies

4. Personalize

The average reply rate of highly personalized emails is 17%, whereas without personalization, the rate drops down to 7%

We cannot stress this point enough. Generic emails will get you nowhere with your leads!

The best way to get more replies is to make your leads feel they are important to you and you’re interested in doing business with them.

What are the aspects you can personalize with lemlist?

• Images

• Videos

• Text

• Liquid syntax

• Landing pages

5. Clear CTA

Your call to action and email sign-offs are your last chances to get your lead to reply.

Make sure that your CTA is aligned with the rest of your pitch. If you guide your leads to take an action that has absolutely nothing to do with your pitch, you’ll lose their interest there and then, thereby cutting down on replies and closed deals.

On the other hand, sometimes the problem lies in giving your prospects too many next steps or none at all.

You’ll want a straight-forward and single CTA, to push your lead to the action you want.

Check out this video and choose between interest-based CTA, direct CTA, or value-based CTA.

6. Include your email signature

You want to let your prospects know they are talking to an actual human being, not just a bot sending emails left and right.

Make sure your email signature is simple and clean but that it includes all the relevant information your prospect may need to contact you.

Top tip: When in doubt, A/B test to see what works better for you!

Example: Cold email structure with 23%+ reply rate

The sequence sent by Pierre, Head of Growth @ Fiveoffices, got:

• 23%+ reply rate
• 15+ meetings booked
• 70%+ conversion rate! 😱

The email Pierre sent to his 246 prospects was the 3rd step of his 7-step email sequence.

Goal?

Finding companies with unused office space that are willing to monetize it by sharing it with other companies.

Target?

CEOs with offices in Paris and at least 2 employees.

So how did Pierre’s outreach get such a high reply rate?

Let’s go through his cold email structure and copywriting together:

#1 The subject line highlights the desired outcome, which motivates your prospects to open and read your email for a solution.

#2 If you don’t want to be too formal or too casual with your greeting - "Hello" followed by the prospect's name is always the safe option.

#3 Pierre catches the prospects’ attention right from the start by immediately showing what’s in it for them, without too much fluff.

#4 The intro line is hyper-personalized, pointing out the prospects’ pain points so they can relate from the start and seek the solution.

#5 The pain point is turned into a win, sharing the benefits and giving prospects a reason to reply.

#6 The next step is clear, ensuring prospects know how to get the value in the way that suits them the most.

#7 The sign-off is simple and neutral, ensuring the conversation ends in a positive tone and motivates the prospect to take action.

The sequence outcome

Open rate: 66.67%+

⬇️

Reply rate: 23.58%+

⬇️

Meetings booked: 15+

⬇️

Conversion rate: 70%+

⬇️

Generated revenue: 80K€+ in the pipeline

This exact email got them in-person meetings within 1 day with a top-tier CEO and an endless stream of qualified sales opportunities!

Cold outreach brought us leads that other channels such as Ads, SEO, or WOM would have never attracted - Pierre Harington, Head of Growth @ Fiveoffices

Key takeaways

So, what should you keep in mind if you want the same or even better results than Pierre?

• Take time to get to know your customer and their data
• Use variables
• Rely on behavioral psychology

In a 2-week free trial, you can replicate all the advice by using customized elements that will make your outreach stand out and bring you 17-30% reply rates!